


Don't fear the reaper

by truantway (kittyjosh)



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Afterlife, Christianity, Death, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Past Character Death, Skeleton Boyfriends, Suicide, Those tags make it sound so depressing, Tumblr Prompt, but it's cute i promise, just don't ignore them if that stuff bothers you it's pretty grim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-29
Updated: 2015-04-29
Packaged: 2018-03-26 08:16:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3843688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittyjosh/pseuds/truantway
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on the tumblr AU: “you’re a reaper escorting me to the afterlife and the road there is surprisingly long” by tumblr user xaquaangelx</p>
<p>Tyler wakes up one morning when he never intended to wake up again, to a boy at the foot of his bed, and goes on an adventure with said boy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't fear the reaper

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah so this is my first joshler fic, I can assure you there are plenty more to come. If you just ship it as a bromance I say read it anyway, it doesn't necessarily have to be read as them being 'in love' or w/e and it's super cute. Read the tags. Be prepared.

‘Dude. Hey, dude. Wake up.’ Tyler’s eyes groggily opened, and something felt really off. Namely, that he was waking up. Though he was disoriented, his mind could still vividly recall how he’d swallowed handful after handful of pills and curled up into bed, a note to his parents on his bedside table. That must’ve been a couple of hours ago, because the faint winter sun was casting hazy light over his bedroom, drawing attention to the figure sitting at the foot of his bed.

_Wait, what?_

He attempted to bolt upright, but was hit by a heavy wave of vertigo, his head spinning as he tried to sit upright. It was only once he had managed to right himself in his bed that he noticed he was in fact sitting _inside_ someone. Upon closer inspection he realized that someone was him. He gave a panicked yell, toppling from the bed and edging backwards from it, staring in horror at the body that appeared to be sleeping in his bed.

_Not the body, his body._

‘Oh god. Oh god ohgodohgod…’ He murmured to himself, knees now drawn up to his chest. In the back of his mind he registered a soothing voice next to him.

‘Shhh, try to calm down for me now. I can explain everything.’ He looked up, and saw the figure that was sitting on the edge of the bed now right above him. He wouldn’t so much call them a person, because though they were completely human in appearance, he noticed now that they were translucent. The light of the sunrise was passing right through them, creating brilliant displays of light. The figure had the appearance (as well as the voice) of a boy looking to be the same age as Tyler. 17, maybe 18 or 19. His hair was a ridiculous hot pink underneath the hood of his black hoodie, and he had a nose ring. Along with his black jacket he wore matching black jeans and boots. What was this ghost punk kid doing here?

‘What’s your name?’ He asked, sitting down beside Tyler. His voice was soothing, and removed Tyler from the edge he had been teetering on since he woke up.

‘T-Tyler. What’s going on?’ His voice trembled, and he saw that Josh looked like he had bad news to bear.

‘Alright, Tyler. There’s not really an easy way to say this. You’re dead. That, in your bed, is your body. The you that is experiencing all this right now is your soul. My name is Josh, and I’m a reaper.’ He gave a small chuckle at Tyler’s confused expression when he said this.

‘Yeah, I know. Not exactly the skelly man with a scythe you expected, right? Well, my job is to help you get to the next world before sunset today, and help with coming to terms with stuff. Now I know it probably seems like we have loads of time, but time passes in weird ways when you’re a ghost and all. Basically, we’ve gotta be at Port Columbus airport by either noon or sundown.’

‘Wait, why do we have to get to the airport?’ Tyler asked.

‘I’ll explain it to you on the way. Now do you wanna get changed?’

‘I can do that?’ Tyler glanced towards his wardrobe in surprise.

‘Yeah, you can interact with anything if you want to. I can leave the room if you want’ Tyler shrugged.

‘Sure, whatever.’ Once Josh had left, he changed into his nicest pair of jeans and a patterned button up. He didn’t exactly know how formal he should be going for. Would he be meeting God? Would God even really care how he was dressed? Wait…what if he wasn’t even going to heaven? What if it wasn’t real, or what if he was going to hell? His brain immediately scanned its banks and returned with every sin or bad act he had ever committed in his 17 years. The main one, of course, being liking boys. He didn’t know how long he’d been standing there, staring at his glassy reflection in the mirror of his wardrobe door, when he heard a knock on the door.

‘Tyler, can I come in?’ He didn’t answer, and a few seconds later the door hesitantly opened, and Josh peeked his head through it. When he was met with a fully clothed Tyler, he opened it the rest of the way and stepped inside. His face fell when he saw the look on Tyler’s face.

‘Whoa, hey, what’s wrong?’ He moved forward until Tyler could see his ghostly form in the mirror as well and there was a look of genuine, heartfelt concern on his face. Tyler hadn’t seen that from anyone close to him for a very long time, let alone a perfect stranger, and he let his guard down.

‘Josh-am I going to hell?’ His voice cracked on the last word, but Josh gave a gentle smile, putting his hand on Tyler’s arm.

‘No way, dude. Pretty much everyone goes to heaven, actually. God’s a pretty forgiving guy. The only people who end up in hell are like, murderers and child molesters and stuff. Those and your occasional heartless earth-destroying tycoon. And I’m pretty sure you’re none of them, so you should be fine.

‘Wait…so God doesn’t hate me for being attracted to guys?’ Josh scoffed at this, but Tyler could tell it wasn’t directed so much at him as at the idea.

‘No way, that stuff’s all b.s with a capital B. God couldn’t care less, dude. I should know, I’m one of his favourites.’ He cracked a broad grin.

‘Kidding, of course, kidding. God doesn’t have favourites.’ Tyler actually found himself laughing at this, a small chuckle, but a laugh nonetheless.

‘Alright, back to business.’ Josh said, sweeping his gaze around the room. ‘Are there any belongings you would like to take into the afterlife? Nothing big, no pets or anything. And your tech stuff won’t work up there, so don’t bother.’ Tyler glanced around his room forlornly. Since when did he have so little that mattered to him? He grabbed his backpack from the corner anyway, emptying out all his school stuff. Eventually he remembered his songwriting book, and swept that into the bag, along with a pen. A last sweep of the room produced an old teddy bear, a photo of him and his brother, and his ukulele.

With that, he was done. But a dull throbbing in his heart was telling him he had one more thing to do.

‘I have to say goodbye to my family.’ He said to Josh as they turned to head down the stairs, but Josh grabbed him by the shoulders and looked gravely into his eyes.

‘You can’t do that, Tyler.’ Tyler shrugged him off angrily, making towards his parent’s room. But Josh stopped him again, with more force this time.

‘I’m serious. They can’t see you like this. Not only will it freak them out, it’ll just make it harder for you to leave. And if you don’t get to the airport by sunset today, you’ll become a ghost forever, but with a lot less power and unable to interact with the world around you. Trust me, it’s better if you come with me. You’ll see them again eventually.’ He gave a sad smile with the last sentence, drawing Tyler into a hug.

‘You’ve got to try to let go of this world. The sooner you do that, the easier it’ll be to adjust to the afterlife. I’m certain you can be happier with us, Tyler. But only if you can leave now, not leave any of yourself down here. C’mon buddy, we should get going now. I feel like this journey may take a while.’

Josh was proved incredibly right when they stepped outside to find the streets layered in snow a foot deep. There was no way they would be catching a bus or train today. But, as Tyler gathered from the lack of sensation when they stepped outside into the winter air, at least he wouldn’t be cold. To his surprise, Josh was moving down the street with confidence.

‘How do you know the way to the airport?’ He asked, speeding up to catch up to the determined figure a few feet in front of him. Josh waited until they were side by side to answer.

‘Well firstly, I actually used to live around here. That’s why I was sent to you. And the sort of in-build GPS skills you seem to acquire as a reaper don’t hurt.’

Josh lived around here? Huh. Tyler scoured his mind for a memory of ever seeing Josh around, or hearing anyone talk about him, and came up with nothing. He must’ve gone to different schools to Tyler. Still pretty weird not hearing about it in the papers or anything.

‘Wait-how did you die?’ Slipped out of his mouth before he could stop himself. _Oh shit._ That is so insensitive; he should not have said that.

‘Fuck, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that. I don’t know what- it’s just that I’ve never heard about- God, I’m sorry.’ He was blabbering, but Josh outstretched a hand to stop him.

‘No, dude, it’s fine. It’s one of the questions I’m asked all the time. Usually I’m escorting old people, and they make snarky comments about my hair and plugs, so I tell them some ridiculous far-fetched story about how I was eaten by sharks in Deer Creek or something. And their eyes go all wide, and they say something like ‘Sweet Mother Mary, I didn’t know there were sharks in Deer Creek!’ And I just nod seriously. It’s a blast. But I feel like you deserve to know the real story, I think you’ll get it.’ Josh hesitated for a moment, and gave a shaky laugh.

‘I was about to make you promise not to tell anyone. But then I realized that’s not something I really have to worry about.’ Tyler laughed quietly too, trying to learn to laugh at the dark humour associated with being dead.

‘Alright, so here’s the deal. Bear in mind all this happened, like, 2011. So my parents were really, really shitty. They were super devout Christians, not that that’s a bad thing at all, I’m a Christian too, but they were the kind that really go overboard with it. I was in my junior year of high school, and I was riding high. I was a star player on the soccer team, I had tons of friends, had a steady girlfriend for a while, I was doing well academically, I was sure I was gonna get into a good college. I was really happy. I had a bit of confusion about my sexuality, but it never really got me down, I learnt to accept it. I was bisexual, and God loved me anyway. Of course, the rest of the school and my parents hardly felt the same way, so I never told anyone.

That is, until I started seeing another guy on the soccer team in secret. He was your stereotypical story, you know the type. In denial, conservative dad, really careful to hide it from everyone. But we were really happy together, nobody suspected a thing. We were great friends, and really happy together. Then one night when my parents were supposed to be out, they come back to find me and him together. And they are really fucking mad. They shout at him to get out, and are immediately on the phone to his parents. And then they’re on the phone to the school, telling them that they’re pulling me out to be home-schooled. For my _last year of high school._ After I was gone, I guess he told everyone about what had happened, but completely twisted it of course, made it seem like I’d begged and begged him for it but he’d laughed in my face and called me a faggot. And that after he’d said that, then I’d flipped out on him, and that’s where he’d got his bruises from.’

‘Holy shit.’ Tyler whispered, and then nodded for Josh to continue.

‘And so of course, nobody would talk to me after that. I was doing what my parents called home-school, which involved jackshit, cuz they worked, my dreams of going to a good school completely ruined. I would go out at nights, sneak out while they were asleep, found ways to make money on the side. When I dyed my hair, they took away my phone. When I pierced my nose, they took away my computer. When they finally noticed that I’d stretched my ears, they took away my drums.

That was the last straw, I think. Even when I had no method of communication with the outside world, I always had my drums, y’know? I’d get lost in playing, I’d play until my hands bled, and it blocked everything out. And when they were gone, there was nothing blocking it all out. Nights were the worst; I got like, no sleep for the last month or so. My thoughts just kept buzzing and buzzing and I couldn’t get them to stop, they were rotting me from the inside.

So one day I got my dad’s shotgun, ‘cuz of course he owned a shotgun, right? And I stopped the thoughts, once and for all I thought. That’s part of the reason I wear this hood. Sorry to disappoint, it’s not just to keep up the reaper vibes. Heaven’s weird with what wounds it chooses to heal, it’ll fix internal damage, and it’ll fix you if you were cut into little bits or decapitated or burned up, but some stuff it just doesn’t heal. My exit wound was one of those things, which kinda sucks. So yeah, that’s the story.’

Tyler had been almost silent the whole time Josh had been telling the story, and though he wasn’t looking at him it was clear he’d been listening. He looked pained, like hearing how Josh had died had really affected him.

‘What about you?’ Josh asked, not able to see Tyler’s face.

Tyler’s head shot up, making scared eye contact with Josh before he lowered it again to watch their feet move forward through the snow, not leaving any prints.

‘Yeah, same kind of thing I guess. Those guys at school have-had it out for me. My parents didn’t care. My brain wouldn’t leave me alone either.’ His voice dropped to little more than a whisper and it cracked as he said ‘It was really bad. I got really scared of the dark. I-I don’t really want to talk about it.’ Josh nodded grimly, matching Tyler’s pose with his eyes on his shoes.

‘So you killed yourself?’

Tyler’s voice was barely a breath.

‘Yeah.’

They walked in silence for a while, two figures in the otherwise empty suburban streets. To anyone observing the scene, the streets would have been completely empty. There hadn’t been any new snow since they left the house, and as they walked along in silence, a snowplough passed, clearing the road of the dense layer of snow.  It was another few blocks before Tyler broke the silence.

‘Do you ever regret it?’ He looked up, finding Josh’s gaze already on him, his dark eyes distant and sad.

‘Every day. I wish I hadn’t acted out, just stuck with it for a little while longer. I wish I’d gotten out of that hellhole instead of letting it get into me. I could’ve made something of myself, that would have _really_ showed my parents. My dad was a cop, right? So he managed to keep everything quiet, nobody ever found out what happened to me. It’s like they forgot they even had a son, like what I did was the best possible outcome for them. Fuck _that._ And I regret leaving my sisters behind. They weren’t _amazing,_ but they were probably the only ones what I did had an impact on. I miss them.

And I miss human feelings. Not emotions, they’re still here, unfortunately. But senses. Nothing really smells in heaven. So there aren’t any trash smells, but there aren’t any of the good smells either. Some people still eat, out of habit, but I tried it and it doesn’t taste like anything. Just like the memory of how your brain knows that thing should taste. You don’t need to shower, or sleep, or go to the bathroom, or _breathe_. I still get the thoughts, not as much anymore, but the drumming doesn’t help. No matter how hard I drum, I never get tired, my hands never bleed, I don’t-I don’t gain nothing from it, don’t get me wrong, I love to drum, and I still drum because it’s what I love to do, and I want to improve, but it doesn’t…it’s not-not-’

‘Cathartic?’ Tyler offered, drawing Josh’s eyes, which had wandered away while they were talking, back to him. Josh looked astonished, a smile taking over his face.

‘Yeah! Exactly.’

‘So if you were given the chance to go back, you wouldn’t have done it?’ He asked, a little louder and more confident than before.

‘No way! There are way better ways to deal with things, only problem is I only see those other options now. And it’s a bit too late for me now. Oh! Right, I forgot to say this when the plough came past, but we’ve got a way better plan now. We’re gonna keep walking until we get to the freeway, then we’re gonna find a pickup truck, or some other vehicle we can hitch a ride on without being noticed, and we’re gonna travel up the freeway with it.’

‘Sounds good.’ Tyler replied. ‘And the freeway isn’t too far off either, awesome.’

‘Sick! In the meantime, do you wanna talk about something a little less depressing?’ Tyler nodded, stopping to think for a minute.

‘So you drum, that’s super cool. I play piano and sing. Plus the ukulele, but I don’t really count that as knowing an instrument.’

‘No way! Ukulele is a completely valid instrument. It’s just a tiny guitar with 2 less strings. It being tiny, if anything, makes it harder. Takes clever fingers to play a ukulele.’

Was that an innuendo? Tyler stifled a snicker, and Josh, clearly realizing his mistake, hastened to change to subject.

‘We could start a band.’ Tyler didn’t even try to stifle his laughter at this, imagining himself with a little harp instead of a ukulele, Josh drumming on a rise made of clouds.

‘I’m serious!’ Josh exclaimed. ‘You think we need guitars? Bass? Nah, fuck them, fuck ‘em. Drums and a ukulele is all you need.’ The last sentence was delivered with such sincerity that Tyler was in stitches, Josh closely following. It was strange, Josh had told him minutes before about how in the afterlife, you don’t really feel anything, but here he was, laughing so hard his sides hurt, his whole body reacting to their dumb joke.

He couldn’t help but notice how amazing Josh looked when he smiled. His whole face lit up, and he was like a small child, or a cat. He thought it was as if God, upon meeting Josh, had said ‘You know what? The sun shines a little too bright.’ And then took some of that sunshine and planted it inside Josh, and when he smiled it all came rushing out.

‘Totally, dude. Let’s start a band.’ He said once he had recovered his breath.

‘So what kind of music do you like?’ Josh’s head snapped back to him, and Tyler could tell this was one of Josh’s favourite subjects.

‘Ah, man, let’s see. A whole range of stuff, mostly rock, punk, pop punk, some alternative. NOFX, Sum 41, Rancid, Brand New. I love My Chemical Romance too, they really bring a whole new level of art to it I think, their performances and concepts and everything.’

‘Yeah, I really dig the theatrics they had. It sucks so bad about what happened.’

‘Wait, what?’ Josh’s eyes widened, and Tyler realized.

_Oh shit, Josh died in 2011. He doesn’t know_.

‘Oh, right, shoot. Uh, they broke up in 2013, sorry dude.’ Josh actually _gasped_ at this, and he looked pretty sad.

‘What the hell? Seriously? Oh man, I’ve missed a lot. That fucking sucks! I had one of the Killjoys jackets and everything. I never even saw them live…’

‘Yeah, it sucks, but they’re all doing solo stuff now. And Fall Out Boy’s back.’ Josh huffed.

‘Huh, I guess that’s alright then.’

They talked about music, mainly meaning Tyler updated Josh on the music scene happenings since 2011 and Josh reacted to them, until they finally reached the freeway.

‘Oh my god, we made it!’ Josh cried, swinging around to hi-five Tyler, who was still smiling. He had never expected the road to the afterlife to be this _fun._

‘Alright’ Josh said in a serious voice, staring intently at Tyler, ‘As soon as I say ‘Run’ you’re gonna grab my hand and run with me, as fast as you can, okay? The cars are going slower because of the snow but we’re still gonna have to go pretty fast to catch one.’ For a little while Josh just carefully observed the cars, but just as Tyler was starting to relax into the rhythm of watching the cars zoom past, a yell of ‘RUN!’ came from next to him, and he was running where the hand clasped in his was leading him. It seemed that the target was a dusty orange pickup truck rounding the corner next to them onto the freeway.

Immediately he burst into a sprint as fast as his ectoplasmic legs could manage, and in a few seconds they were next to the bed of the vehicle. Josh released his hand and Tyler watched in shock as he leapt up into it, climbing over the side. As soon as he was inside, Josh outstretched his arm, motioning for Tyler to take his hand. He did, and climbed into the truck bed.  Once they were both safely inside, they sat down, leaning against the back of the cab. They didn’t need to worry about blocking the driver’s view, what with being invisible and all. As they went to sit down, Tyler took his backpack off and placed it in front of him. As he did so, Josh caught sight of the ukulele, the neck of which was sticking out of the top of the bag.

‘Hey, maybe you could strum us a song with that thing! Travel music.’ Tyler blushed.

‘I dunno, I don’t really sing in front of people.’

‘Hey, it’s okay. You’re among friends here. And I can’t sing for crap, so even if you think you’re doing badly I’ll probably still think it’s fantastic.’ Tyler gave in, unzipping his bag and taking out his uke, giving it a couple of strums to check it was still in tune. He cradled it in his arms, racking his brains for a song Josh would know.

‘Ah! I know!’ He exclaimed. As he strummed out the opening chords, Josh’s eyes lit up, before flitting over the rest of the truck bed and locking on an object which he pulled towards him. It was a bucket or barrel of some description, and he upturned it and began drumming along to the beat. When Tyler started singing the first verse, (“When the lights go out, will you take me with you? And carry all this broken bone, through six years down of crowded rooms and highways I call home?”) Josh felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, and he wasn’t even thinking about how he couldn’t feel the cool kiss of the wind on his skin or in his hair. Because right then, he felt like he was being basked in summer sun, like he was being buffeted by the cool breeze, like he was caught outside in a summer storm.

He looked up, hands still keeping time on the barrel, and locked eyes with Tyler, who was smiling just as widely as he was, and he mouthed along with the words. Once they had finished the song, Tyler turned to him.

‘Why didn’t you sing along, just mouthed the words?’

‘I told you, I can’t sing at all.’

‘I don’t care dude, c’mon, we’re not doing this to sound the best, we’re doing this because it’s clearly making both of us really happy. Sing backing vocals on the next one, okay?’ Josh found himself nodding, and Tyler began strumming out ‘Socco Amaretto Lime’ by Brand New, Josh making up a simple beat to go along with it. When it got to the part with backing vocals, he did sing along, and Tyler looked ecstatic. By the outro of the song, they had both abandoned their instruments, and were belting out ‘You’re just jealous ‘cuz we’re young and in love’ at the top of their lungs, arms around each other’s shoulders, on top of the world. Once they had finished, they collapsed, giggling, onto the floor of the truck bed. There, on the floor, their eyes met again, and they just smiled at each other, until Josh bolted up.

‘There’s the airport turnoff up ahead there. This truck isn’t turning, but that minivan with racks on the ceiling is. So it sounds crazy, but we’re gonna have to jump onto it. Collect your stuff quickly.’ He did, as Josh climbed on top of the truck’s cab. The minivan in question was in the lane next to them, two cars in front. As Tyler climbed onto the cab roof, Josh took a run up and leapt onto the roof of the car. There was no wind resistance, so he made it easily, his ghost feet not making a sound as they hit the silver sedan. Tyler was a few steps behind him, and stumbled when his feet hit the roof. But Josh was there and caught him, their faces dangerously close. Tyler pulled away, moving to the edge of the car roof to get a decent run up. He landed solidly this time, moving out of the way when Josh landed next to him.

A few more jumps, and they were on the minivan. They sat down, one on each side, arms behind them clinging onto the roof rack. Sure enough, the van drove right to the airport parking lot, and stopped in a space. Once the mother and four young children had piled out of the vehicle, Josh beckoned to Tyler and jumped down onto the asphalt. Tyler followed him, looking around the almost empty parking lot.

‘Alright’ Josh said, eyes on a section of the airport in the middle distance. ‘So it looks like they’re going to the arrivals terminal. Which kinda sucks, because where we’re going is on the far side of the departures terminal.’ He pulled up his sleeve, and cursed.

‘I forgot to put my watch on this morning, I dunno what time it is. Uhh, we probably have plenty of time, it’ll be fine. Let’s go!’ He followed Josh, who seemed to have a much better idea of where they were going than Tyler did. As they walked past the food court inside the departure terminal, Tyler inhaled deeply, but he didn’t smell anything. Josh noticed the disappointed expression on his face, and spoke up.

‘It’s weird, isn’t it? I would say that you get used to it, but I don’t wanna lie to you, and you never really do. It’s kinda like having a cold that lasts forever, except you’re able to breath, but don’t need to. Hey, one thing we do have going for us here is that the airport’s not busy. When it is, since I’m not allowed to go visible until I get to the gate, I get people walking through me. A lot. And that, _that_ feels really weird. It’s hard to describe, kinda like when you eat something really hot and you can feel it in your stomach, but all over your body. Well, wherever they walked through. I guess to them it feels like they’ve walked through cold mist or something, sometimes you see them shiver afterwards; they always look a bit confused. Super weird.’

Next up was security, which consisted of the two of them walking right through the scanner without incident. They journeyed through the departure lounge, passing gates housing unhappy travellers, flights likely delayed because of the weather. As they approached the end of the departure lounge, Tyler noticed something unusual.

‘Uh, I thought there were only 12 gates.’

‘Mmhm.’ 

‘Then why is there a door at the end of the terminal with a little number 13 over it?’ He wasn’t wrong, there was, in fact, a double door identical to the rest on the back wall, with a large red number over it like all the rest, but no seats surrounding it.

‘Oh, right. That’s where we’re going. It’s invisible to the pre-dead.’ Tyler snickered.

‘Pre-dead?’ Josh looked like he was trying to look offended.

‘Uh, yeah. That’s a thing. Don’t be a hater, Joseph.’

‘Wait, how do you know my last name?’ Tyler asked, dumbfounded.

‘Dude, when I got your case it had your name right there, right in front of me.’

Right, of course. Tyler had to remind himself that Josh was here because it was his _job._ Nothing more. Not because he was someone that actually cared what happened to him, because he was…was he payed for this?

He realized he had said the last bit out loud when Josh looked at him in surprise and said ‘No, it’s volunteer work.’

Tyler let himself believe that this meant Josh must care at least a _little._ As they stepped in front of the door to gate 13, it opened automatically. They followed the arrows down a blindingly white corridor until they emerged in…well, it looked near identical to every other departure lounge in the airport. Badly cushioned chairs sat in rows, interrupted by small tables. A newsstand manned by an old man who looked like he had been there forever, which he possibly had, stood in one corner of the glass-walled building. On the wall opposite where they came in there was another gate, nobody standing at the desk. In fact, apart from the old man, the place was completely empty.

And no wonder. Tyler’s eyes found the screen on the wall next to the gate, where it displayed the time.

12:18

‘Shit’ he heard Josh murmur beside him. ‘The flight leaves at 12 sharp, we missed it. The next one leaves at…’ He moved a bit closer to read the only other flight displayed on the board.

‘5:12. That’s five hours we’ve got here.’ Tyler groaned, but Josh looked optimistic.

‘Dude, you know we can leave this gate, right? We’ve got a whole _airport_ to explore. We’re ghosts! C’mon, I’ll show you some cool ghosty stuff.’

Turns out time really does fly when you’re having fun. Because damn, was Tyler having fun.

‘Here, watch this.’ Josh told him, an impish grin on his face. Near the toilets, a man was standing with his suitcase standing alone next to him. He was talking to someone rather loudly on his phone, paying no attention to what was happening next to him. They approached him, and Josh gently took hold of the suitcase’s handle. He pulled the suitcase along, leaving it a few metres away, the man still oblivious. Then, they sat and waited. A few minutes later, the man finally hung up, bringing his arm down to grasp his suitcase, only to find it wasn’t there. He spun around wildly, scanning the terminal, eventually spotting it a few metres away where Josh had left it.

Puzzled, he began walking towards it. Josh got back up from the nearby chair he had been watching from, running towards the suitcase. When the man was perhaps a metre from his bag, Josh continued slowly pulling it along. The man’s eyes widened, and he looked carefully around to be sure nobody else was witnessing this, before taking steps towards the suitcase. But as the owner of the case stepped forward, Josh pulled the case back. The man’s eyes narrowed, and he lunged towards the case, but Josh jerked it backwards, and broke into a run. The case was rolling along the airport floor swiftly, its owner speeding up considerably to try to catch it, but trying not to attract the attention of onlookers.

Tyler watched the whole scene unfold, laughing so hard there were tears in his eyes.

They waited in the bathroom, Tyler waiting by the light switch, and Josh in the corner reflected by the mirror over the sinks. Eventually, a man left the stall and went over to the sink.

_Flick_

The lights went off. ‘What the...’ the man murmured. A laugh echoed through the bathroom, half-there.

_Flick_

They were back on, and Josh was visible for a half second before

_Flick_

They were off again.

_Flick_

He was closer now. The laughing was louder now; another had joined it, ghostly laughter playing in stereo.

_Flick_

_Flick_

He was closer again.

_Flick_

_Flick_

_Flick_

_Flick_

Gone. The man shook his head, his breathing unsteady.

_Flick_

The lights were back off, there were ghostly hands brushing over him.

_Flick_

But still there was nothing there when the lights turned back on.

_Flick_

They were out again, and suddenly the room was filled with an awful sound. A scream, sounding like it was ripped from the dying, the dead, an awful, pain-filled cacophonous sound bouncing from the tiles, and the man was scrabbling for the door in the dark, finding the handle at last and yanking it forward, tumbling back out into the light. Tyler flicked the lights back on, and met Josh’s eyes with a broad, mischievous grin which Josh returned. They hi-fived, laughing uproariously.

‘Dude, that scream was _animal._ How did you do that, holy crap!’  Tyler shrugged, and they escaped the bathroom, still giggling.

It turned out that kids loved Josh.

This was discovered when he made himself invisible to only a baby sitting in its mother’s lap, playing peekaboo with a look of pure joy on both his face and the baby’s. The mother looked confounded, looking around everywhere for the source of entertainment and finding nothing.

He made himself visible for a short moment to a small girl, who tugged on her mother’s sleeve upon his disappearance.

‘Mommy?’ The woman looked down at her daughter.

‘What is it, Suzie?’

‘Mommy, where did the boy with the pink hair go?’ Her mother looked up, and saw no such boy.

‘There’s no boy with pink hair here, Suzie.’

‘But there _is!_ I saw him just then, but then he disappeared. He’s not there now.’ The mother just nodded, looking back to her paper.

‘That’s great, honey.’

The little girl’s face fell, and Josh’s did the same. He rushed over to the news agents/bookstore and grabbed a lollipop, running back to the little girl. He made himself visible to her again and crouched down with the candy.

‘Heya. I saw you were sad, so I got you this. You can’t have it yet, don’t let your mom see it. She can’t see me, because I’m invisible to everyone when I want to be. But I think you’re super cool, so I let you see me. I have to go now; it’s nice to meet you.’ The girl beamed as Josh disappeared, stashing the lollipop in her bag and waving in the direction Josh had vanished in. Josh smiled just as widely, reappearing for a second to wave back. Tyler’s heart felt like it was going to burst from how cute the whole exchange was.

After a few hours of screwing around in the rest of the airport, Tyler suggested they go back to gate 13. Once they were there, they continued talking about anything and everything.

‘Wait, so how exactly does this whole reaper thing work?’ Tyler asked, spread out across the floor of the gate with josh next to him, staring at the ceiling.

‘Well,’ Josh explained, ‘it’s like volunteer work. You volunteer, and they either assign you to your local area, or put you on the emergency list. Usually it’s the nicest, most caring people or something they assign to their local areas to deal with people one on one. They have some fancy maths to work out how many to assign to each area, using like population and death rate and likelihood and all that. Emergency list is basically everybody else that isn’t specifically assigned to an area. If there are more deaths than the usual reapers for an area can keep up with, they send someone in with a cool little GPS thing. And if there’s an accident or something and there are loads of people dead in the one place, they send a couple of them out and bring them to the airport in groups.’

‘Why wouldn’t everyone want to do that?’ Tyler queried. Surely, there’d be no short supply of volunteers.

‘Some people don’t actually know that it’s a thing. But mostly it’s the fact that if you don’t get back before sunset, you’re trapped on earth as a ghost, like I told you earlier. And most people don’t wanna risk that, because it’s a pretty crap existence when you’re full ghost. You’d think that people who made it to heaven would be more selfless, more understanding. But it turns out most people just want to spend the rest of time in peace. I mean I get that too, and I don’t get really worked up about it. Just wasn’t for me. I felt guilty, I guess, and I know I would’ve been even more terrified and lost right after I’d died if a reaper hadn’t been there.

And I didn’t do anything meaningful while I was alive; nothing I did then helped anyone, made a positive impact. I might as well do something now that I’m dead, right?’ Tyler nodded enthusiastically.

‘Yeah, definitely. I think that sounds like something I might be up for. Given some time. It’s still kinda a shock, that I’m really _dead._ ’

They talked for hours, telling each other things they had never told anyone else, lying on the floor of the gate. As they talked, a few other pairs entered. One old man, who bought a newspaper and sat, wholeheartedly ignoring his reaper, and one mother-aged woman deep in discussion with her similarly aged reaper. Tyler and Josh ignored all of them, continuing to talk, in their own little world.

The sun was nearing the end of its journey across the sky, casting brilliant light patterns over the terminal, when they fell silent. It was not an awkward silence, more a contemplative silence. Josh looked on the verge of saying something but stopped himself.

‘What is it?’ Tyler questioned, voice oddly drowsy for someone who would never need to sleep again. Josh hesitated again, before taking a deep breath and spitting it all out, practically in the same breath. Actually, considering he didn’t need to breathe, it was highly likely that it was in one breath.

‘Listen, I know this is probably totally weird considering I only met you today, but it really doesn’t feel like it and you make me feel more alive than anything ever has, even when I was actually alive, and it’s in a completely positive way not like drumming because that was partly the pain of it but you make me feel like an ocean breeze or something and it’s amazing and pure and I can’t let that go and I really want-need you in…not my life, I need you in my existence in some form not necessarily in a romantic way, well not unless you want it to be ( I’m there for that if you are) but if not that then as my friend because you’re a freakin’ miracle, Tyler, and I’m not giving that up.’ If ghosts could blush, Tyler would definitely have been blushing.

‘I-yeah, I felt that too. Like a breath of fresh air or something. And I’d really like that, Josh.’ He gave a genuine smile that melted Josh’s heart a little bit.

‘Awesome!’ Josh beamed and leapt up, motioning to Tyler to stay there. He dashed out of the gate, and was gone for a couple of minutes before he returned with a pen. Tyler laughed when he saw this, reaching into his bag and producing the pen that he had collected early that day.

‘Dude, I had one right here.’

Josh huffed and shrugged, reaching for Tyler’s arm and scribbling something on it in an unpractised scrawl.

‘Joshua Dun. 1-283-786-392. What’re the numbers for?’

‘Everyone’s assigned a number when they get to heaven. That’s my number. They have a phone network in heaven, can you believe? So yeah. Call me. I’ll definitely be there after Ohio sundown, sometimes noon. I have an answering machine, so.’

‘Awesome.’ Tyler said, grinning at Josh, who smiled back.

A few minutes later, a woman’s voice filled the gate, and Tyler glanced around to see that two women had appeared at the door that led to the tarmac. He pondered for a second how it was that there was spare tarmac for this ghost plane, but then realized that one of the women was speaking.

‘…roll call, to check that everyone who’s meant to be here is here.’ She began calling out names, of both reapers and their assignments, and he and Josh answered when their names were called. Once the woman had called out everyone’s names (everyone thankfully present), she requested everyone to follow her through the door. They did, and she led them to a small plane on the edge of the tarmac. They climbed on board the plane and took a seat in roughly the middle.

Tyler was slightly nervous, as he didn’t know where heaven even was, let alone how this plane was meant to take him there. Josh seemed relaxed, so he asked.

‘I’m not sure how it really works, but we fly for a little while and then we’re there.’

‘Spooky.’ Tyler murmured, and Josh nodded in agreement. None of the usual messages from the pilot or safety messages were played, they were just informed that they were about to take off, and then they did. As Josh had assured him, they flew for a while, and then they were landing. When they left the plane, Tyler was shocked to find that it was as if they had landed in

‘Columbus?’ Josh looked back at him when he said this.

‘Yeah, it always looks identical to the airport you came from. Heaven’s weird, it’s not static in its locations. I prefer not to try to understand it, that’d probably make my head explode.’ He visibly cringed after saying the last part, and Tyler realized that that had already happened to Josh. As they entered the airport, Tyler looked around, stunned, as he noticed he was in almost a replica of the airport he had spent 5 hours of the day in. Except it was the arrivals lounge, he recognized from the few times he had been there. Instead of gates, a food court, and baggage carousels, there were desks, things that looked like photo booths, and weird machines that looked like security scanners, but faced onto walls.

Josh explained that these were where you register and get signed off, and that the machines were actually teleports to transport you anywhere you wanted to go.  Josh headed over to a desk and exchanged words with the man sitting there, who typed things into a computer more advanced than Tyler had seen on Earth. When he had dealt with everything, Josh came back to Tyler, leading him over to one of the booths and stepping inside. It asked Tyler a few questions which he answered with the attached keyboard.

**NAME**

Tyler Joseph

**DATE OF DEATH**

24 November 2014

**AGE AT TIME OF DEATH**

17

**COUNTRY OF DEATH**

USA

Then it asked him for a photo of himself, and the camera turned on. The image appeared on the screen with a direction to press the space bar to take the picture. Unlike for passport photos, there were no warnings insisting that he stay serious, but he was going for a neutral look when Josh leapt into the edge of the shot, making an adorable dumb face with his tongue out. This caused Tyler to smile brightly, and without thinking he pressed the space bar, and a shutter went off. The image that appeared on the screen was actually a pretty good picture, and Tyler pressed the ‘Submit’ button without hesitation. A ‘Please Wait’ message appeared on the screen and the machine made a whirring sound before ejecting a card from a slot Tyler hadn’t noticed.

‘Please take your ID. Have a wonderful stay!’ Appeared on the screen, which then reverted back to the starting screen. Tyler took what was apparently his new ID, complete with adorable picture of him and Josh, and they left the booth.

When they left, Josh turned to him and looked him right in the eyes.

‘Ok, now you’re going to go sign off at one of the desks, then you’re gonna be transported to your new apartment. This is where we’re gonna have to say goodbye.’ He drew Tyler into a huge hug, holding on tight before somewhat reluctantly letting go.

‘Bye, Tyler. Call me, right?’

‘Right.’ Tyler replied with a smile, heading over to a desk and displaying his card to the woman sitting there. He answered a few quick questions, then she asked him whether he would like to be transported to his new apartment. He nodded, and she pressed a button he couldn’t see. What had looked like a security scanner lit up with bright blue light, and he recognized it now as what must be a teleporter. He turned around to wave a final goodbye to Josh, who waved eagerly back, and stepped into the light. He felt himself dissolve, and was whisked away to the rest of his existence.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry the ending was kinda shit I didn't really know how to end it. I don't really want to write a sequel sorry so don't ask.


End file.
